Getting back to business

It hasn't really been the kind of season I was hoping for so far this year. Going into a senior season, one hopes they won't be sidelined by injuries for the first month, only getting back to their freshman form with three races left.

I've been battling some Illiotibial Band (IT Band) issues since the beginning of the season, keeping me from participating in many team practices, and limiting my running to only a couple of days per week. As any athlete can tell you, being apart from your team can really get to you, missing out on big events because you physically can't do them. Luckily, I've been able to keep active through cycling, but it's still taken its toll.

Dinner.

Another thing an athlete can tell you is that when you pull them out of athletics, it will affect them in their daily life. For a student, this can mean classes, personal commitments, or just daily function. Trying to pull yourself out of a funk when you just aren't there is one of the biggest struggles you can have, and sometimes you just need to take a break.

This weekend, we hosted the VT Intercollegiate Cross Country championships, where after four weeks of disappointing races, I was able to finally break the elusive 28:30 mark again, having cracked it first at this race in 2013.

Now that I feel that I'm going somewhere with my training, it's time to figure out everything else.

One last shot - Senior Seasons Ahead

Well, here it is. Three years after I first moved into my double in Ryan Hall, I am slowly settling into the townhouse life on the other end of campus. It's been an interesting three years, ever learning how to be both a student and an athlete at the same time, and a large part of that learning happens when there is no school.

Summer break is the time when many students go off and work so that they can afford to come back to school, others do summer research, while some try to think nothing of the coming school year until it's time to start. As an athlete, I was thrown into all three camps: working at a camp to make enough money to get by for a few months of unemployment while I train and compete this fall and winter, research myself to find out how to not overwork myself both mentally and physically, all while trying to not think about the fact that these will be my last seasons as a college athlete.

A large portion of my time this year has been spent sitting on a bike. There's just something about it that makes me feel more free than my ski or running training. From central NH, it's hard to run or ski somewhere that leaves you with both a great workout and a feeling of having taken an adventure. On the bike, I have been able to test my limits and see how fast, far, and how long I can go for, taking me on some pretty cool adventures.

It is on these where I am able to really absorb what is going on in life. Decisions that need some time, I have found, are best made on the bike. Thinking about what is going to happen this year was a big one, like determining what my senior project is going to look like, how to best avoid my injuries (didn't work, already injured), and how to try and lead both the Men's Cross Country and Nordic teams this year. 

Whatever the case, the work has been put in, most of the decisions have been made, and all I can do is keep up and hope for the best over the next few months.

Long Drives for a short Carnival - Bates and Colby @ Quarry Road

Well, the carnival season is upon us, and things got off to a very interesting start. Our first weekend, the Bates College Carnival, is usually supposed to be at the historic Black Mountain of Maine. But unfortunately, due to a few days of warm and rain, the race was moved a few hours away to Quarry Road, home of the Colby College Nordic Team, and, you know,  my first ever collegiate race.

After leaving training camp at Sleepy at 8:30, we arrived at the venue at 3:30 for our course preview. The course in question was a 1.4km loop to be used for both the sprint and 10km races this weekend. Oh boy.




Many laps were skied, and the course looked the same each time. One big uphill out the start, followed by a descent through a field, then back up to the stadium.

Day one went about as expected, with classic sprinting not quite my forte. At the end of the qualifier, I sat in 79th. Oh well, I was more focused on the 10k the following day.

No Classic Sprint Photos at the request of myself.

For the '10'k, we skied six laps of the short course, so it ended up being much closer to 8.5km. There was also snow. A lot of it. That, coupled with much traffic, resulted in the course quickly devolving to sugar, so it was a battle as to who could better balance light feet up the climbs and power through the field. In the end, I could do neither, and ended up 45th. I also couldn't see.

T'was a bit snowy...

We returned home eventually, and then came back the next weekend for the Colby Carnival!!!

This time around, we had a fun 15k Classic Mass Start, followed by Freestyle Team Sprints! New things!

The classic race actually went pretty well considering I had been sick for three weeks leading into it (oh yeah, that was a thing). I tried to keep a fairly even pacing for it, and ended up finishing the three lap race (full race course!!) in 51st overall (45th collegiate). I hung with a good group the whole time, and nobody passed us!

Then, it was time for the most serious race of the weekend. The race to determine no NCAA points, but still saw teams out testing fleets of skis. That's right, the Team Sprint. Two people, three laps each, 18 minutes of madness.

Liam and I partnered up to lead St. Mikes to a 26th place finish, which we'll take considering neither of us are sprinters.

 The course was the Colby Sprint Loop, different than the previous week's course in the addition of another climb and descent. Three times.

 It was a fun race in the end. Not very often do we get races that stray from our usual routine, so it was nice to be able to not take one as serious.

We're in an off week this week, back next weekend at UVM/Trapp Family Lodge!